This is the first of what we envision becoming a regular ATM column
focused on teaching aikido to kids. It is our intention to feature
a variety of authors and approaches, with the conscious aim of encouraging
an inclusive conversation about the many ways in which one can create
and nurture a youth aikido program at your dojo, school, or community
center. Your ideas are welcome and should be sent to rk@aikidokids.com.

1-
RESPECT - The First Principle

Aikido offers us a rich tradition, one both physically complex and
philosophically deep. Teaching this art to kids challenges us to
create a curriculum that is simple enough for kids to learn and fun
enough that they stay interested, but which nevertheless provides
them access to as much of Aikido's physical and philosophical richness
as they are ready for. Articulating basic principles is a time-honored
means to this end, as principles are in themselves simple but we
instinctively acknowledge the almost infinite range of their embodiment
in actual circumstances. One of Aikido's special charms is that the
philosophical principles (Unity, Harmony, Love, etc.) can be found
embodied in the various physical principles (moving from center,
blending, the protection of one's partner, etc.). Aikido is, from
this perspective, ethics made manifest or the philosophical made
physical.

Thus Aikido principles, with this dual identity, are especially
central to the teaching process, and therefore to this column.
Two obvious
principles - harmony and love - compete for our attention. Each
is a valid translation of the "Ai" in Aikido, and thus
Aikido, by its very name, is about manifesting harmony in the midst
of chaos,
about loving those who (at least temporarily) wish us harm, and
about resolving conflicts as peacefully as possible. We have, however,
decided that this inaugural column will examine respect, as respect
seems even more fundamental than love or harmony - as one must
first
accept that which one would love, and one must first acknowledge
that with which one would harmonize; and acceptance and acknowledgement
are the work of respect. This is not a claim that respect is somehow
more important or powerful than love, only that it has to come
first.

Respect, in relation to Aikido, is a multi-faceted and mutual
process of acceptance and affirmation that strengthens our
relationships with ourselves, with our students, with our
classes, with our
training
spaces, and with the art of Aikido itself.

Let's take these one at a time:Respect of self - This is what gives you permission to teach class "your" way
- permission to embrace your instincts and to acknowledge your
abilities. It also implies the responsibility to make the class
work for you
too - to make sure you're having enough fun that you can keep teaching
week after week.

Respect
of your students - This has to flow in both directions. Clearly
they will only learn from you if they respect you and what you're
teaching. Similarly, you can only put forth your own best efforts
when you believe your students are worth it. Happily, one kind
of respect begets the other, so you inevitably generate both at the
same time - as the best way to get them to respect you is to respect
them first. It can well be argued that the habit of respect is
itself one of the most critical things you can teach. Your respect for your
students manifests in simple ways like bowing back with sincerity,
and in complex ways - accepting students wherever they happen to
be on the learning curve, and teaching from that point forward,
rather than expecting them to learn at your convenience or on your schedule;
acknowledging their progress, and not comparing them to other students
(as any comparisons are negative comparisons for someone).

Respect
of class - As much as the class clown, if you have one, can
be entertaining, you nevertheless have to insist on reasonable
and non-disruptive behavior for everyone's sake. You need to arrive early
enough to have class begin on time. You need to put out lots of
enthusiasm to keep things engaging. You need to be attentive to energy levels
so as not to wind them up or run them down too much. Lastly, mindful
of how powerfully one teaches by example, you have to constantly
manifest all the aspects of behavior (attentiveness, politeness,
kindness, etc.) you want to elicit in them.

Respect
of the Training Space - Some of this takes time (keeping
the dojo clean), and some just takes attentiveness (bowing in all
the right places) and sincerity (meaning it when you bow to O'Sensei).
Taking care of the mats and the shomen together before or after
class is also a great opportunity for students to demonstrate their seriousness,
and, perhaps more importantly, to experience themselves and their
training partners as members of a community.

Respect
of the art - This is demonstrated both on and off the mat
of course - for the greatest respect you can give Aikido is to
acknowledge that it can help guide the rest of your life - but we're more concerned
here with your on-the-mat behavior. That you continue to train
is
important, because it shows when you walk onto the mat to teach.
That you continue to make progress towards greater technical clarity
is important, because it makes your teaching more effective. Respect
of the art also asks us to embrace diversity (by which I mean avoid
dogmatism) - because nobody has all the answers, and even O'Sensei's
own direct students teach and train differently from each other.
Respecting the art asks us to acknowledge that other teachers and
styles are valid, though we are of course welcome to note that
they are different from what you're putting on the mat today for your
students. Manifesting respect in all of these ways isn't easy -
it requires practicing patience, attentiveness, integrity, and compassion.
The work is well rewarded, however, because it helps us teach,
helps us train, and encourages our students to learn as much from aikido
and from us as they possibly can.

2
- Forging Character

Last
issue's inaugural column focused on respect, with the idea
that respect was the most fundamental answer to the question
of what Aikido IS. This column will focus on the process
of forging character, which the author claims is the most
fundamental answer to the question of what Aikido DOES. Subsequent
columns will take on more practical topics in greater detail
and will offer interviews with prominent instructors or insightful
students, but addressing both what Aikido is and what it
does seemed the right way to begin.

Part One - Why Aikido?
There are a host of reasons why kids might like aikido, and a similar
host of reasons for their parents to send them. The best of these
reasons is that aikido training helps kids become better people.
It does this in part by improving both their physical skills
(balance, coordination, flexibility, timing, strength, and grace)
and their ability to move, and by improving their social skills
(cooperativeness, intuition, and empathy) and their ability to
emotionally connect.

The child's or teen's awareness of these skill improvements
in turn nurtures their confidence, and encourages them
to attempt progressively
greater challenges and thereby obtain more significant accomplishments,
both on and off the mat, in a self-fulfilling spiral of growth.
As important as these benefits from skill-improvement are,
however,
they pale in comparison to the most important thing going on
in a successful aikido program - the gradual forging of
each student's
character.

My contention, simply put, is that Aikido is one of the best
tools yet discovered to help us as humans, of any age, face
our greatest
challenge and succeed at our most important task - which is
to take control of our own destiny by participating consciously
in the process
whereby our thoughts become our actions, our actions develop
into habits, and our habits form our character.

Part Two - What is Character?
One of the challenges in talking about character is that it
is not something you can walk up to someone and observe -
like you
can observe
how tall someone is, what clothes they are wearing, or how
gracefully they can perform ukemi. Character is not something
you see, taste,
touch, feel, or hear. Character, best defined, perhaps, as
what you are in the dark - is difficult to define precisely
because
it is
most in evidence exactly when no one else is watching. Character
only shows up well in the most difficult situations - in
the actions you take and the decisions you make when the pressure
is on. Character
reveals itself best, if I may slip into a sports metaphor,
when you step up to the plate down by three runs with two
outs
in
the bottom
of the 9th inning and the bases are loaded.

And the stadium is empty.

We say that someone has excellent character when they choose
to do the right thing not because they want to be popular,
not because
they want the reward, and not because they are supposed
to; We say that someone has excellent character when they
choose to
do the right
thing simply because it is the right thing to do. Someone
who tells the truth only because he doesn't want to be
punished
for lying,
someone who leaves other kid's stuff alone only because
he doesn't want to get caught stealing, or someone who offers
help to someone
hoping to get a reward is not exhibiting excellent character.
On the other hand, someone who tells the truth because
they've
decided
that it is better to be honest, or who leaves other kid's
stuff
alone because he respects them and their possessions,
or who helps someone
without thinking about a reward, IS exhibiting excellent
character.

Character is being virtuous for its own sake:

Character is thinking and choosing and acting with integrity
- regardless of the consequences to yourself (returning
the wallet
that you found means you don’t get to keep the money)

Character is thinking and choosing and acting with integrity
- regardless of your own limitations (doing your homework
even
if you are lazy or standing up for your friends even if you are scared)

Character is thinking and choosing and acting with integrity
- regardless of how much easier you think it would be to
do
the wrong thing instead.

Character is not easy. Our conversation here about character
is only a tiny piece of the work that Character requires.
It
is important, but not nearly enough, to think about how we make
decisions. It is important, but not nearly enough, to examine
- if only briefly,
the
person we are in the long process of becoming. It
is important,
but not nearly enough, to talk about how we choose to live.

Even more important than examining your life is actually LIVING
IT. Getting up in the morning, going to work or
school, hanging out with
friends, eating, reading, training, brushing your
teeth, and listening to music.

A friend and former camp counselor of mine once said that
one of the best tests of character was how someone
behaved when
it doesn't
seem to matter:

how hard do you work during your senior year when you've already
gotten into college?

how hard do you play when you can't possibly win (or lose) the game?

or
to bring it back around to how we started - How much do you care
as you step up to the plate . . . when the stadium is empty?

The whole point of character is that I
can't answer these questions for anyone
else. The
whole point
of character
is that each
of us chooses how to answer these questions
everyday - even if we're
not
aware of it - by how we think and by
how we act. The whole point of character is
that we
ARE what
we DO
- and by acting
in a particular
way today, and then again tomorrow, we
are creating our future selves - we are
creating
habits that
make it more
likely
that we will act
that way the day after and the day after
that.

So how we choose to act today is the
first step along a road that points
directly to our future.
If we
want that
future
to be a good
one, the steps we take today along
the road to our future have to be good ones
too.

Another way of putting this is that
because thoughts become actions,
actions develop
into habits,
habits dictate character,
and character
determines destiny - the thoughts
we have today DO matter. Not because anyone
else
is necessarily
watching
us today,
but because
what we
think and do today shapes who we
become tomorrow, and every day after that.
So our entire future
life hinges
upon every
decision
we make
today, no matter how trivial each
decision might seem.

EVERYTHING matters

Everything matters ALL THE TIME

The stadium is NEVER EMPTY.

Part
Three - How does Aikido help forge
character?
So now that we've established
that the development of character
is
the most
critically important
task before
any of us,
we next seek
to demonstrate that Aikido
training is one of the best tools available
to pursue
that
development.
Regular Aikido training is,
at its core, a joyful exercise
in
connecting
with
an ever-changing series of
opponents, and repeatedly
making
the mental and physical adjustments
necessary to turn each opponent
into a partner.
Aikido
training
is thus
a habit-forming
repetition,
in the face of conflict,
of the act of generating
peaceful
thoughts
that
in
turn generate harmonious
actions.
Any sincere Aikido
training, by its very nature,
gradually makes this noble
peacemaking reaction
into our default response
in times of stress, conflict,
or attack
- which are
precisely
the
situations
when Character is most clearly
on trial.

One of my most sincere exhortations
to those students with
whom I really connect
is to “Go out and prove that Chivalry is not
dead.” I do not aim, with this exhortation, to have them
imitate long dead warriors and kings, but to have them carry with
them and
to nourish, like a living flame, an attitude about the best possible
relationship between oneself and other people. That best possible
relationship is exactly the one that Aikido training develops and
encourages.

3
- Demo Class

Our first two columns focused on respect and forging
character, which laid the theoretical foundation for more practical
topics, such as the one we address this issue - that of putting together
a coherent and intriguing demo presentation that will capture the
imagination of a school or event audience, actually teach them something
they didn't know, and hopefully boost your own program enrollment.

Part One - Got Kids?
Whether you've got an Aikido program for kids going strong or have
just decided to implement one - you're going to need to attract new
students. Even well-established and popular programs lose students
to seasonal sports teams, school plays, orchestra rehearsals, and
the thousand other enrichment activities today's youth have to choose
from. There is also, specific to Aikido, the built-in attrition of
kids who leave the program frustrated that they're not getting the
quick and superficial satisfactions of board-breaking or getting
to learn the moves of their martial-arts movie heroes.

While advertising certainly can work, it is difficult to capture
the essential attractions of aikido training in a quarter-page
ad in the local paper - particularly in the CNN and MTV world
where few kids, or their parents, take the time to even
read the local
paper. While Aikido can be eye-catchingly dramatic, kids have
to see it happening right in front of them to appreciate
that a "way
of harmony" isn't as boring as it sounds. Still photos cannot
capture the dynamism of training, and no amount of ad copy below
a photo or illustration is going to overcome the fact that aikido
is much easier to demonstrate with flying bodies than to explain
with words and pictures. Thus the kind of print or radio advertising
that might fit in your modest budget is not likely to be nearly
as effective as putting on a show for local kids.

While
some communities have festivals or fairs once a year where such
demonstrations might be appropriate, every community
has
schools, church youth groups, and scouting organizations, and
they almost
always appreciate a chance to add some culture and flair to
their program - particularly when it won't cost them anything.
Often
a parent of a current student can help to connect you with
the right
people (principal, youth minister, scout leader, etc.) to make
arrangements.

Part
Two - Sample Curriculum (what follows assumes you have at least
one trained uke participating in the demo, and mats on which
to take falls safely).

Introduction
- The typical school group, scout troupe, or whatever
group you're demonstrating for are not likely to know much
about the distinctions between martial arts, nor are they
likely to
understand that no martial art's students get to run up walls
like Neo and Trinity
in The Matrix after training for a few weeks. A bit of explanation
is probably in order before the actual aikido starts, to
set the context and help your audience understand what
you are
about to show
them. The needs of each audience are different, so you'll
have to tailor your introductory remarks to the specifics
of the
particular group, but in general I'd think you'd want to
include how the
Samurai
arts of sword fighting (Kenjutsu) and grappling (Jujutsu),
highly refined by two hundred years of Japanese civil war
and woven
together by O' Sensei with the Shinto spiritual/ philosophical
emphasis on
harmony, became what we now call Aikido. A bit about your
own training and experience seems a good idea, as does
introducing
your ukes -
particularly letting the audience know how long your ukes
have been studying, so everyone watching can draw some
conclusions
about how
quickly they could learn something useful and cool if they
were to start training.

Presentation - While you're giving the introduction discussed
above, your ukes (assuming the mats are already set up
wherever this demo
is taking place) should be stretching out behind you -
an activity that underscores the physicality of what is
about
to happen,
but which isn't a distraction while you're talking. For
the demonstration itself - much of course depends on what
your
ukes are capable
of,
but the basic lesson provided below can be easily tailored
to your circumstances. Note that this demo-lesson assumes
that you
don't
have enough skilled assistants to perform Randori, but
if you can add that to the program, by all means do so,
because
it
is both unique
to Aikido, and makes for a rousing finish.

Demo-Lesson (spoken
once you are in the middle of the mat, with ukes ready)
Every technique we study in Aikido involves practicing
the art of creating a change in the situation - a situation
where
you
are being
attacked is changed to a situation of containment - a
pin - or to one of escape - they are taking a roll, and
you
have time
to get
away safely.

We
must enter into the very center of the conflict - Illustrate
with Katate Dori Irimi Kokyu Nage

We
must understand our opponent's intentions in order
to achieve resolution - Illustrate with Munetsuki
Kotegaeshi Tenkan, pausing after the initial
blend

When we follow these four steps
for creating change, we don't
just change
the situation,
we change our opponents.
They began the interaction wanting
to attack us - believing us to
be their enemy. By demonstrating
our desire to
understand them and
by manifesting enough concern
for them to make sure they don't
get
hurt - we change their
mind, we change their
anger, and
we
change
their role.

They wanted to hurt us, and
we wanted to dance. And
if our Aikido
is good
enough, and our ability
to dance is
better
than their
ability to hurt us, they
don’t
want to hurt us anymore.
They stop being our opponent.
They
start being our partner.

And everyone knows how
much more we can do when
we work together.
(this might be a good
place
to insert the Randori
demo, if
you have enough ukes
that are up to it)

Finish the lesson by
asking all the members
of the
audience two
questions:

Who is your most critical opponent?

What can you do to turn them into your partner?

4
- A Moral Equivalent of War

Examining
the
extraordinary importance of "an aikido
attitude" -
Today's kids are, whether they are ready for this or not, going to
be running the world someday. And no matter where you are on the
political spectrum - it seems clear that the world could use a few
more leaders exhibiting compassion and creating harmony. This column
examines how best to create the kinds of heroic statesmen the world
so desperately needs today, and tomorrow.

Part
One - The role of conflict and the rise of heroes
Most people think of Aikido as a peaceful art, inherently at odds
with all the war and strife that seems so often to dominate both
our lives and the evening news. As martial artists however, we should
not shrink reflexively from either conflict or chaos. Indeed, these
are the very elements we are training to dance with - to render harmonious
and orderly. It is only by embracing the concept as well as all the
individual manifestations of conflict that we, as peacemakers, can
actually have the harmonious impact we are training to be capable
of.

Violence, conflict, and chaos have at least one thing to recommend
them - they are exactly the conditions that seem best able to
generate, or reveal, the heroes amongst us. Some of these
have been historical
warriors - Churchill, Kennedy, and Washington - some have been
literary warriors - such as Odysseus, Arthur, Cyrano, Wolverine,
and Aragorn,
and some are not seen as warriors at all - Mohandas Gandhi, Martin
Luther King, and Mother Teresa. Each of these, whatever their
warrior status, were leaders of a people in the midst of
conflict, and as
such needed the same warrior attributes - discipline, charisma,
strategic vision, perseverance, and courage - that we try
to nurture in ourselves
as Aikidoka. All of these individuals were at least in part a
product of their circumstances, thus if we are to appreciate
our heroes,
we have to allow ourselves to appreciate the violent, chaotic,
and conflicted circumstances that helped make them heroic.

Heroes seem to emerge whenever a real crisis threatens a community
or a nation. The evil of Hitler’s Germany was met by the resoluteness
of Winston Churchill, Khrushchev was matched by John Kennedy, and
Klansmen and segregation by Martin Luther King. Since heroes almost
always appear when they are needed, it seems obvious that there must
be some number of potential heroes constantly milling around waiting
for a crisis to propel at least one of them to greatness. Thus an
important role of conflict or crisis is to focus people’s
attention and bring out our most heroic behaviors - whether this
is a battalion
charging into battle, or firefighters charging up the stairs of
the World Trade Center.

Part Two - Generating heroes in an ambiguous modernity
If we want to survive the next decade or so, our little planet
is going to have to come up with workable solutions to a
variety of
difficulties - economic, environmental, political, ethnic,
technological, religious, etc. If we want to survive, we
must quickly figure
out how to unkindle the fires alight under the tinder of
Islamic militancy,
how to guide China out from under the shadow of the Communist
Party, how to balance the legitimate needs of industry with
the sustainable
limits to environmental resources, how to prevent the spread
of fissionable materials and technologies, and how to overcome
the enormous economic
influence of arms merchants, drug smugglers, and tobacco
companies. These solutions, whatever they are, will not come
from the
barrel of a gun or the blade of a flashing sword; the problems
we as
a planet face at the beginning of the new millennium are
simply not the type
that can be cured by violence. We have many good soldiers
doing what soldiers do in Afghanistan and Iraq and elsewhere,
but
in the grand
scheme of things our problems will not be solved by soldiers
but by statesman.
All the problems we face are rooted in, and nourished by,
conflict. Aikido teaches us that the most effective approach
to conflict
resolution is not to "become stronger than one's opponent" because
the only real opponent is the conflict itself. Instead,
one must act as the catalyst by which the conflict itself
is
eliminated.
Aikido training can help us to become such a catalyst,
both on and off the
mat.

20 years ago when I graduated from college, I saw many of
my friends going off to become doctors, environmental lawyers,
and social
workers, but even though they may have been propelled by
a
tide of a hundred
noble sentiments, I nevertheless saw my friends as engaged
in an attack on the symptoms of society's discontents,
rather than
on
the cause. To invoke Thoreau, I saw that "There are a thousand hacking
at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root," (Walden,
Economy) and I believe Aikido training can help us become such
a one as he discussed.

If "conflict" is the true phylum name of whatever genus
or species of problem we may encounter, then "solving the world's
problems" becomes a matter of resolving the conflicts that
engender the problems, rather than myopically focusing on the problems
themselves.
Were Heracles to have come up from behind and killed the body of
the Hydra instead of frantically attacking all of its heads from
the front, he might have had an easier time of it.

Our age is, however, more complex than the one that the
Greek hero had to grapple with. Vanquishing our enemy
with mighty
sword strokes
and some burning embers is no longer an option. Today
the Hydra is a protected species, swords require a permit,
and to burn
embers one must first submit an environmental impact
statement.
The mythic
description of the titanic contest is also out-dated.
Closer examination of the field of battle reveals that
it is no
longer home to two
elemental
opposing forces. We are, as Nietzsche put it, beyond
Good and Evil. The Greeks saw life's challenges as pairings
of monsters
and heroes.
On our field of battle, however, there is only the Hydra:
venomous, wounded, dangerous, and alone. Just as Pogo
discovered
his
enemy, we must understand that the great beast is us.
There we are,
with our many heads quarrelling in an otherwise unthreatening
expanse.
There is no opponent against whom we must, or even can,
wage war; rather it is these heads, connected to our
common frame,
that must
learn to wage peace. There is no "enemy" other than conflict,
but since there is conflict within our collective breast, there is
still a battle to be won. In that battle, for there to be "victory," we
must somehow learn to tame ourselves.

Thus the challenge to the contemporary would-be hero
is the ambiguity of modernity - we live in a world
without dragons
to slay and
damsels to rescue from distress. Being a knight in
shining armor was a
lot easier when the bad guys wore black and the “good” thing
to do was stick your sword though them a few times. The ultimate
challenge, however, of conquering our own demons is still available
to us would-be heroes centuries after dragon slaying became unfashionable.
Nevertheless, living an enlightened life, as challenging as that
may be, seems like it might not be enough when so much of our world
is going to hell - if that enlightened life is played out quietly
off the main stage of the world’s events.

Part Three - What's all this got to do with kids studying
Aikido?
The world seems to be in desperate need of the kind
of statesmanship that could have figured out by now
what
to do about terrorism,
AIDS, global warming, and poverty. Maybe I missed
something on the evening
news, but leaders on that order do not seem to be
making the headlines.

My contention is that it is up to those of us who
have already found the aikido path to either make
the headlines
ourselves,
or create
from amongst our children and students the leaders
who will. O'Sensei famously claimed that Aikido
was a way
to heal the
world. While
this seems an extravagant claim, who amongst us
has devised a better way?
There are, in this 35th year since the founder's
passing, a few hundred thousand of us scattered
around the planet,
a group
which
constitutes
a veritable army of harmonious change - if
we do not put this healing into practice, who will? If
our art
is unable
to resolve
the conflicts
that plague us, what art can? If we do not believe
that training children in Aikido improves their
chances of
waging peace
as adults, why do we teach this to kids? If we
do not keep our
expectations high and believe our students must
be made ready to take on the
world's great challenges, how can they be prepared
to do so? Margaret
Mead
once wrote: "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed
citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that
ever has." While there is nothing wrong with using aikido
to teach kids to be a bit more coordinated and a bit more confident,
it is not enough; we must, as teachers of children, also wield
aikido
to create the kind of thoughtful, committed citizens that can manifest
the art's potential for leadership and healing.

The practice of war, which mankind seems so reluctant
or unable to give up, is good at drawing out
the heroes from
our midst.
It is
bad, however, on so many other levels that the
price of finding those heroes never seems worth
paying.
Aikido training,
however,
has the
potential to be groomed into the moral equivalent
of war - for if it is war that awakens the great
heroes
amongst
us -
it will
be the
moral equivalent of war that will, without any
violence and chaos required, awaken the great statesmen.

5
- Gasshuku

This
issue's column focuses on putting together special training opportunities,
or Gasshuku - that energize your program generally, that provide
an extended and rigorous opportunity for students to focus on particular
aspects of their technique, and that serve as powerful community-building
events. Our column for next issue will offer real stories about
how training can improve a kid's life off the mat.

Breaking
past the limits of regular training
Let's face it - Aikido is not a quick study - it takes lots of time before
techniques even start to flow naturally.
More than just time of course - our bodies need to groove a technique into
our muscle memory by performing hundreds or thousands of repetitions. Trying
to do all these repetitions at once would take more time than one class offers,
and would take a much greater attention span than most kids (or adults, for
that matter) can bring to the mat. Thus as teachers we don't usually have the
luxury of concentrating on one technique long enough for students to feel they've
made significant progress. We find ourselves hoping to see small improvements
in several techniques, and tossing in a favorite game to end up class on a
high note.

There's
nothing wrong with this pattern for regular weekly training,
but we don't have to settle for this as the only way to train.
Indeed, it seems to be the pattern of progress in Aikido (articulated
well by George Leonard in his book Mastery) that we plug along
for a while, getting steadily better, and then we hit a wall
that seems to halt our incremental progress. Frustration and
self-doubt ensue, and eventually if we do keep training a breakthrough
occurs, and we find ourselves substantially better than we were.

Extended
and intensive training events - called Gasshuku - are a great
way to up the ante and break through whatever barriers to progress
the patterns of regular training have allowed to build up. Whether
this is a special afternoon training away from the dojo, or a
multi-day seminar, Gasshuku serve to both jump-start each student's
progress and re-invigorate everyone's normal training. In the
next section we'll outline a few different events you might want
to try - but whatever you come up with will probably be a great
experience for your students.

Earth,
Wind, Fire, and Water - Training in the great outdoors
Training away from the sterile environment of the dojo - out
in a forest clearing, on a beach, alongside a creek, or simply
in the
middle of a soccer field - is a great way to allow students
to tap into the larger forces at work in nature. It can also
help
to shake
loose whatever mental blocks might be inhibiting their progress.
Depending on the availability of portable mats, training
can be otherwise normal, or you can forgo taking falls
and focus
on weapons work.

At
our dojo, we've organized an annual "Weapons on the Beach" kid's
seminar on a Sunday afternoon. Jo and Bokken training -
solo and paired kata and weapons takeaways - from 1 to 4, followed
by a
chance for the kids to make their own patch of zen sand-garden
with landscaping
rakes we borrow from a dojo member who runs a local nursery.
A barbeque overlooking the ocean puts a nice finish on
the
event,
and everyone
is home by 7 with time to finish whatever homework they
might have. As the pictures demonstrate - the beach we've been
able to use (see below)
makes this day really special, but even with a less spectacular
location,
the training and the barbeque would be a valuable experience
for everyone.

Some
Gasshuku are intended to really push physical limits, and in
doing so generate both a startling intensity for the training,
and a powerful camaraderie amongst the students who underwent
the experience together. At the dojo where I began my training
in Kyoto, there was an annual festival in December where the
students gathered at a local temple, changed into their keiko
gi, and ran thru the streets for a mile or so to the banks of
the Kamo river, where mats had been set up for a few hours of
class. Running barefoot thru the snow-flecked streets and training
outdoors in winter is not for the uncommitted - but the crispness
of the air in your lungs and the tingle (some might call it numbness)
in your feet makes for pretty memorable training.

24 Hours, or more, of Aikido - Training, and Training,
and then more Training
Attending seminars is such an important part of adult aikido training that
Honbu dojo requires yudansha to list seminar participation as part of qualifying
for promotions. While no such standard exists for kids or mudansha ranks, seminars
can be just as valuable for less advanced students. Intensive seminars - where
students are in the dojo for 24 hours or more continuously - are, like training
outdoors, a way to change the circumstances of training and accomplish what
regular classes cannot.

How
you should schedule such an event depends of course on available
facilities, student schedules, and instructor availability, but
most dojos can probably put together a 24-hour Gasshuku that
strings together an orchestrated sequence of classes - preferably
not all by the regular kid's instructor, as these special events
are also a way to tap into the expertise of other adult members
of the dojo - interspersed with meals, some related activities
(calligraphy, meditation, samurai films, or yoga), and a sleepover.

At
our dojo we start our annual Gasshuku on a Saturday afternoon at
2:00, after the regularly scheduled adult morning sessions, with
a stretching class led by member of the dojo who happens to be
a physical therapist. The first of three thematically-linked technique
classes focuses on entering and balance taking for the entire hour
- a luxury made possible because the stretching has already been
done, and all the kids know there will be time for games later
in the evening. The second technique class - on responsiveness
and proper spacing - spends an hour on paired weapons exercises,
principally introducing the kids to the 31-jo kata "dark side" practice.
Dinner and some downtime are followed by a group discussion, some
O'Sensei videotapes and a Kurosawa film, and some late-night yoga
helps everyone settle down energetically and get to sleep.

The
kids, after breakfast and some cleanup, then join the normal
adult Sunday morning weapons and general classes - which is both
thrilling for the kids to experience being taken seriously by
that many adults, and is fun for the adults to get a full dose
of kid-energy (photos above). Lunch and a final class - focused
on blending and awareness - concludes the training, and a short "talking
stick" ceremony allows all the participants to voice what
the last 24 hours have done for them, and brings the Gasshuku
to a close.

6
- Aikido Off the Mat

This issue's column combines two submissions from other
authors - one real story about how training can improve a kid's life
off the mat, and an essay about how a famous literary character does
Aikido off the mat under our very noses. If you have a something
you'd like to contribute to the conversation - send it to rk@aikidokids.com
for possible inclusion.

ThomasIntro and story by Alex Vanderburgh, Aikido West

While Aikido is my true love in the martial arts, I have been teaching
in the inner city after school programs, and finding that the students
were much more interested in fighting than they were receptive to
Aikido and it's concepts of non-violence. It has been a long and
challenging road to blend with their energy and bring them to an
alternative understanding. While many of my students, all African
American and Hispanic youth, have been challenging, one student in
particular really comes to mind.

Thomas has several family members in prison, some for homicide.
He had wanted to be on the school football team, but was
rejected -
he was too wild to follow instruction. He simply could not
control the wild bursts of adolescent hormones, and his
behavior showed it.
He joined my roughest program and was on the edge for several
months, constantly having extreme difficulty managing himself.
While he never
seriously injured another student, he came close many times.
I refused to kick him out entirely, although there were
some really difficult
afternoons. My sense was this- that if we are truly teaching
youth to deal with bullies, we cannot lull them into thinking
that we,
the adults, will always be around to protect them and create
a controlled environment that has zero tolerance for threats.
Or, as Thomas and
the rest of class like to remind me, there was no martial arts
technique for planes flying into buildings (this class
began in September of
2001). Thus, part of the training in my program works to help
students who are calmer, quieter, and frightened deal with
students just like
Thomas.

In December, we had an unexpected event, a panel of 30 adults
- the board of directors for the umbrella organization that
funded our
after school program - were having a party the following
night, and we were asked to give a demonstration. Four
of my more
challenging students were able to come. During this demonstration
I chose
to
have the four students break boards, but not in the traditional
way.
Instead of just demonstrating the power of destruction, I
have my students use the board as a metaphor. I have them
write
on the board
something they wish to break through, an obstacle that they
feel is keeping them from success in life. As a child of
the 1960's,
I had hoped for great things like "racism" "sexism",
or "class oppression". Instead, as these are middle school
students, many of them with learning disabilities, I got "Math".

Another feature of the demonstration and a part of every
class I teach, is a minute of what I call "still and quiet",
where the students sit still- sort of- and quiet- sort of- for
one minute
before and after each class. The adults watching the demo where
amazed that these wild kids could actually do this! What was
significant here is that after the demonstration, the adults
asked questions
of the students. Thomas answered the questions he was asked calmly
and thoughtfully. The next day he came to me and told me that
adults had never listened to him or taken him so seriously in
his life.
Shortly thereafter he went to the football coach and was able
to get on the team, where he still is today. While he no longer
trains
with me, he has sent his younger brother and half sister to my
class,
and they still attend. I believe that by blending with his energy,
not trying to force him to be different, but by letting him be
who he was and help him learn to contain himself in a larger
context, he was able to succeed.

The Best Aikidoist That Never ExistedEssay by Gordon Teekell, Oakland Hills Aikido

All the aikido instructors I have trained with have insisted
that aikido does not rely on strength to make techniques
effective. They also espoused a belief that the greatest
expression of
aikido will
not happen on the mat in the dojo, it will happen in
the events of everyday life. O’Sensei has told us that
aikido is for reconciling differences and bringing peace
to the world.

I have not found many clear examples of this in real
life. I have, however, been more successful in finding
examples
of real life aikido
in works of fiction. Movies have been the most prolific
source of stories that demonstrate how the principles
of aikido
can be used
to resolve conflict situations in a peaceful yet
direct way, but I think the best example comes from a series
of books.
As it turns
out, these are books you can count on kids being
pretty
familiar with.

J. K. Rowling may have provided the world with the
best Aikidoist that never existed. She offers us
one indelible
character
who is consistently able to bring love, peace,
and understanding to every
situation. Who faces adversity with an unwavering
strength and stability. Who remains calm when others
panic. Who
can get to the heart of every
situation, see through deception, and encourage
those that need love and support.

Whenever this character is confronted with a tough
situation, they are able to apply the principles
of aikido to resolve
the conflict
in a just, fair, and caring way that leaves others
with their dignity and a chance to make the most
of the experience
they
have just had.
I am speaking, of course, about Professor Albus
Dumbledore, the Headmaster of Hogwarts School
of Witchcraft and
Wizardry.

Those of you who have read any of the Harry Potter
books will no doubt have noticed how calm and
wise Dumbledore
is. He is
the master
of every situation. He has an awareness that
goes beyond the moment or the immediate scene.
He is
able to see
to the heart
of the people
he encounters and to bring out the best in
them. If they insist on persisting in destructive behavior,
he will
find a way to
have things
work out for the greater good.

How many of us have experienced conflict situations
at work or at school with individuals that
out-rank us?
In “Harry Potter
and the Order of the Phoenix”, just such an event occurs. Cornelius
Fudge is the Minister of Magic, the head of all wizards and witches.
While Dumbledore is the Head Master of Hogwarts, he in no way has
the executive power of Cornelius Fudge. Early in the book, Harry
has been accused of practicing underage magic and is summoned to
a disciplinary hearing before a committee of the Ministry of Magic.
The hearing has been rigged to put Harry at a disadvantage in defending
himself. He is facing the board of adults all alone, when suddenly,
Dumbledore appears at the hearing to speak on Harry’s
behalf.

During the exchange that follows, Dumbledore
uses several basics of aikido philosophy
to guide the
proceeding to
a favorable
outcome for Harry. First, he does not clash
with his partners. As he enters
the proceedings, he assumes an amiable
disposition and makes himself comfortable in the hostile
environment. By doing
so, he demonstrates
centeredness, confidence and projects an
aura of power.

As the hearing proceeds, Dumbledore is
able to stay one step ahead of Fudge’s efforts to convict Harry. He never directly conflicts
with Fudge and uses his knowledge of wizard law and the circumstances
of the incident to guide the review board to the conclusion that
no offense was committed. When Fudge tries to introduce offenses
not related to the subject at hand, Dumbledore is not distracted
but stays focused on the center of the issue and prevails. Dumbledore
uses logic, reasoning, and the Ministry’s own
rules to help the committee reach the conclusion that
Harry was innocent.

Throughout the series of Harry Potter
books, the Hogwarts Headmaster demonstrates
his
ability to
master any difficult
situation.
He never becomes angry or loses his
perspective. He remains calm and centered.
He demonstrates awareness of his surroundings
- physical, political, tactical, and
practical. Dumbledore
has
superb technique. It
is obvious he knows magic and he knows
people. He has practiced his craft
to the point of mastery. He reaches his
goals through blending and guidance
rather than
the crude application
of force.
At the conclusion of
a conflict situation, Dumbledore's
antagonist(s) remains unharmed. They emerge physically
intact, but changed.
They know they
have been bested but have no way to
resist, no power to undo what they have
just agreed to.

Albus Dumbledore could teach all of
us to be better aikidoists. Professor
Dumbledore
has
taken aikido
off the mats and
applied its’ principles
to everyday life. This is the ultimate incorporation of training,
theory and philosophy into one’s lifestyle. Each individual
who encounters Dumbledore is aware of the man’s extraordinary
competence, his prowess in the arts of magic, his complete commitment
to integrity, and the loving protection of all those he comes in
contact with. Doesn’t that sound like the best
aikidoist that never existed?

If this notion intrigues you, reread
a Harry Potter book and look for
the aikido
principles
used throughout
Dumbledore’s
appearances. Who knows, you could learn to get more
of those principles working
for you in everyday life.

7
- Kids and Weapons

This issue's column focuses on training weapons - jo,
bokken, and tanto - and a discussion of how and why to incorporate
them into a youth program.

Introduction
From almost every kid's perspective, weapons are cool. All the best
comic book heroes, knights in shining armor, and action movie
stars have them, and those weapons - whether they are adamantine
claws, enchanted swords, or MI-6 issued Berettas - empower their
heroes to vanquish evil and save the innocent. Weapons can be
scary too, especially in the hands of the wrong people, but they
are always going to get a kid's attention.

And most teachers agree that getting the kid's attention is half
the battle.

Training
weapons, however, offer far more than a flashy means to get the
student's attention. They offer a genuine experience
of
samurai training, they offer clear reasons for many technical
forms, and
they offer a powerfully visual guide to how good one's posture
is. Safely integrating training weapons into a youth program,
however, requires some thought.

"Real weapons" vs. "Fake
weapons"
Very few aikido dojos train live steel, and that level
of intensity, while it may have its place in serious adult
training,
has
no place in a youth program. Even if 99% of the time students
paid meticulous
attention and trained with the most rigorous care (and
most of us would be thrilled with such seriousness), the
remaining
1% means
someone would get hurt.

The other extreme, assuming you incorporate weapons into
the program at all, is to use only padded or plastic
approximations. While movements
can be taught this way, my instinct is to make the experience
as real as possible, and go with genuine bokken and jo.
This requires
some class time be spent emphasizing that weapons training
requires that students respect the weapons and their
training partners appropriately,
as even ash and oak can be dangerous in untrained or
unsupervised hands.

For younger kids, or if you're just trying to be extra
careful, there are several harmless alternatives to
genuine bokken
and jo. Traditionalists
might take the Kendo route - which addresses the safety
issue by using the split-bamboo shinai. Less traditional,
and less
expensive,
options include foam-padded PVC pipe, or sticking a
broom handle inside an appropriate length of funoodle.

Whatever weapons are used, be aware that kids
will reproduce the training movements they learn in class
once they
get home, or at
school, and thus it is incumbent upon us as teachers
to make it clear that swinging a stick around is
not something
one
should do casually.
Especially if they train with harmless padded weapons
in class, but only have a not-so-harmless baseball
bat to
play with once
they leave.

Embodying
the Samurai Spirit
One of the great things about weapons training
is that it connects students across the centuries
to
the samurai
children
who trained
the same way. When students realize that they are
becoming part of a respected and time-honored tradition,
they
have that much more
reason to respect themselves. For those more future-oriented
students, it may help to remind them that aikido
weapons training will prepare
them to wield a Jedi light-saber - as soon as someone
starts making them.

Having a sword (wooden or foam) in their hands
also provides an opportunity to talk more meaningfully
about the ethics
of conflict - how the
samurai could only be willing to kill to the
extent that they were willing to die: for to attack someone
with
your sword
you have to
come within range of theirs - and thus fights
between
individuals, which were rare, were always about
something
important
(or at least, the samurai thought the reason
was important).

Bringing out weapons also, obviously, can bring
both the excitement and empowerment levels
up several notches, especially
when
you teach take-away techniques. While learning
to
swing the sword is important,
it seems even more important to learn how to
face someone else's weapon - for while pinning
someone
who tried
to punch you is
cool, learning to disarm and control someone
who tried to stab you with
a knife or cut your head off with a sword is
awesome.

Discovering the Source of Technique
Many Aikido techniques derive directly from
Samurai sword techniques, or Kenjutsu. 200
years of civil
war between
various Japanese
clans served to refine these techniques to
an extraordinary degree: only
the best swordsmen survived to teach the
next generation - for 10 generations in a row -
so that we can
have great confidence
in the
martial validity of what has been passed
down to us.

Often nage wields their partner's forearm
(as in Shihonage or Yonkyo) as if it were
a sword,
and
thus knowing
how to swing a sword properly
is a necessary component of performing
those techniques. To the
extent possible, it is usually a good idea
to demonstrate Kenjutsu-derived aikido
techniques both with and
then without weapons, so that
the students can see for themselves where
the movements came from and
why they "make sense". Even without weapons in
hand, it can be a useful exercise to imagine them back into
place,
as that
act of imagination helps the body to naturally extend ki
outward in the direction of the weapon's blade or point.

Revealing
Extension
While an observer can always tell if
a student's posture looks grounded and
balanced,
it is
harder to tell if
their movement
is tapping into
the power of their center unless you
are taking ukemi directly. Put a 3-foot
bokken
or a 5-foot
jo in their
hands, however,
and the degree
of alignment of the weapon with their
center makes it self-evident whether
and how a
student's movement
should
be changed.
Small movements of their hips generate
large motions of their weapon,
making stance
and posture errors easy for both teacher
and student to see.

Similarly, grasping a tanto makes uke's
movement both more dramatic and more
clear - as it
accentuates the
direction
of the attack, and
thus makes it easier for nage to see
what he or she is trying to blend with
or block.

Tip of the Sword, Tip of the Brush,
Tip of the Iceberg
One last useful point to make about
weapons: The extension of ki out from
one's center
which is
so central to
wielding a jo or bokken
properly (especially in the emotionally-charged
circumstances of someone else wielding
a jo or bokken at you) is
also central not
only to performing empty-handed technique
but even more importantly to meeting
challenges off the
mat as well.
Wielding a brush
for calligraphy requires the same poise,
breath
control, and focus. So does extending
energy forward in order to weave thru
a crowd on the sidewalk or at a concert.
So does
holding one's
ground
and staying
focused and
calm when someone's yelling at you.
So does virtually any situation in
life
where
staying
calm and
centered and still
able to move
might be important.

Which is to say it helps with every
situation you'd otherwise ever be
scared of. Amazing
what learning
to swing a wooden
stick can do
for you.

8
- Does Aikido Work?

This
issue's column addresses the oft-debated question "Does
Aikido Work?" from a perspective relevant to kids, teachers,
and parents.

Introduction
Many of the conversations one encounters on various aikido-themed
websites engage in a not-always civil disagreement on the general
subject of "Does Aikido work?" Kids exposed to all the
martial arts movies are likely to ask the same question, and parents
who do not train themselves are unlikely to be equipped to answer
it for them. The question is certainly one that kids are likely
to hear from their friends, and that aikido teachers are likely
to hear from both parents and students alike. The question certainly
sounds pretty important and fundamental, but in truth it is very
misleading - as asking that question expects an answer to be about
what aikido can teach one to do to someone else, and expects an
answer to ignore what kind of person aikido can teach one to be.

Nevertheless, let us begin by addressing responses to the question
itself. One side will argue that Aikido, derived from well-established
and highly evolved traditions of battlefield combat, is extremely
sophisticated and that any unimpressed observer falsely concludes
from the gracefulness of the movements that they are not in fact
also brutally effective. The counter argument will probably cede
the point that the origins of aikido are genuinely martial, but
insist that contemporary training methods - specifically
the cooperative
training where uke does not constantly counter or resist, and partners
do not actually "fight" to determine a winner - do not
prepare Aikidoka for anything resembling an actual street fight.

There are three things to keep in mind about questions about
how effective Aikido is as a fighting art.

1] Hypotheticals - The first problem
is that there can be no reasonable answer to these questions
if they are posed regarding
a generic
hypothetical situation - for it matters too much what the exact
conditions of
the combat are and who is doing the aikido. Thus you can't
really ask "Will Aikido win versus X" where X is Jujitsu, Karate,
Wu Shu, etc. Nor can you ask, "Will Aikido allow me to prevail
if I'm mugged in a dark alley?" To both questions the only answer
is a not very helpful "Maybe". Even more careful questions
like "is kote-gaeshi going to work against a punch from a trained
karateka?" are too hypothetical to determine just by talking
about them. All such questions, careful and not so careful alike,
can only be answered by executing the scenario in question. Doing
so, however, still only answers the specific instance -whether Aikido
Person A's kote-gaeshi worked effectively against Karate Person B's
punch - embodied in the scenario. General and sweeping answers to
these questions simply are not possible, and the questions themselves
therefore may engage our ego but not our intellect.

2]
The practitioner or the art? - The second problem with the
question "Does
Aikido Work?" is that asking the question suggests that it is
the entire art, not the individual practitioner and their own training,
which is at fault if someone does not prevail in a conflict situation.
As a martial art, Aikido's potential can be fairly judged only if
one looks at a broad cross-section of prominent instructors (to determine
how good it can be) and a broad cross-section of students (to confirm
that the art can in fact be taught effectively); it cannot be judged
by any single person, with the possible exception of O'Sensei. If
I were to get beaten up, the odds are quite good that it is not Aikido
at fault, but me. Particularly because I would probably have had
something to do with the fight starting in the first place - something
probably not in keeping with the ideals of Aikido.

Someone can, of course, be attacked without any provocation,
and regardless of his or her innocence, their Aikido may
not be enough
to save them. While this outcome may be tragic, it does not
answer the question in any general way - as all that it teaches
us is
that their Aikido, confronted with those attackers, was insufficient.

3] Aikido
isn't "fighting" - Much more important, however,
is the objection that asking such questions completely misses the
point of Aikido - for trying to rate Aikido on some scale based on
how effective it is as a fighting art ignores O'Sensei's rather central
contribution of realizing that we're not supposed to be fighting
in the first place. Nor are we even supposed to be competitive enough
to want to know if our aikido is better than someone else's. The
real purpose of aikido training is to gradually eliminate the anger,
competitiveness, and egotism within ourselves - with the result that
we can experience all of life as one energetic whole and transcend
the dualistic sense of opposition that underlies all these questions
regarding combat effectiveness.

O'Sensei wrote that "Budo is Love" - and thus training
in his art is not training to be the one everybody is scared of,
but the one that nobody would want to attack in the first place.

Internal vs. External grounding - This is not to say that martial
effectiveness is thereby irrelevant, indeed martially effective
technique is how the love that one feels for the universe is
manifested in
moments of conflict so that one can protect those that one loves.
Nor do I intend to suggest that training should not be rigorous
or realistic - indeed, Shugyo or intense training seems, as
a practical
observation, the best if not only way to achieve the sort of technical
competence that could guide one safely through a street-fight.

But conflict is a much broader spectrum than just street fights,
and Aikido has the potential, if not the responsibility, to address
issues of conflict along that entire spectrum. Focusing only on
the combat-effectiveness of Aikido hurts us in two ways - it
takes our
attention away from all the conflict-resolving things we could
have done to avoid a street-fight in the first place, thus
making street
fights more, rather than less, likely; and it also engages a combativeness
and a fearfulness that triggers our primitive fight / flight neural
mechanisms and therefore inhibits our best aikido at exactly the
moment we may need it most.

We
are thus faced with a situation where the best response is
the Zen command Mu! or "un-ask the question!" It
is not intense training that is the problem; it is the debilitating
and unanswerable
questions about combat effectiveness that are the problem. Instead
of caring, therefore, if Aikido works (which is really asking if
Aikido works against other people), the conclusion is that Aikido
training must focus instead on harmonizing oneself first - for it
is Aikido's core concept that genuine effectiveness flows outward
from an internal harmony rather than an external competitiveness.

Each
of us is uniquely positioned, therefore, to answer the question
we
should be asking about Aikido, which is not "Does Aikido
Work?" but which is instead "Is my Aikido training helping
me, however slowly, become a more integrated, compassionate, and
loving person?"

Creating
Community

In
this final Aikido for Kids column we discuss how, in a post-Aikido
Today Magazine world, to maintain and nourish the community of
kid’s teachers and their students we’ve been trying
to serve. We will celebrate and examine the creation of community
- a task central to the success of any dojo, and a task particularly
critical to the process of teaching kids. As always, your ideas
and suggestions are welcome and should be sent to Robert Kent (rk@aikidokids.com).

A
community of one - getting them to know themselves
Aikido training puts us face to face, and hand to wrist, with
a steady stream of new partners. Each of these moments serves
to offer us
a small reflection on who we are and how we’re doing. Cumulatively,
training teaches us as much about ourselves as it teaches us about
our training partners. Most kids don’t have a very clear idea
of their place in the world, what other people think of them, or
even what they think of themselves, and thus Aikido’s ability
to teach us about ourselves has great potential to help kids start
forming reasonable and healthy ideas about themselves. As a healthy
self-identity is the bedrock upon which all subsequent healthy relationships
are built, the importance of Aikido training’s ability to
help us know ourselves can hardly be overestimated.

A community of two - connecting with each student
The kids in your class are very unlikely to really appreciate
the long years you have put into training. Not that they mean
to be
disrespectful, but just that a 9 year old will have trouble imagining
studying ANYTHING
for longer than they’ve been alive. Additionally, and naturally,
each kid’s world tends to rotate, more than for an adult, around
themselves – such that it is incumbent on us as teachers to
make ourselves relevant TO each kid’s world by connecting with
each kid. These ideas combine to form the aphorism “kids don’t
care how much you know until they know how much you care”.

The only way to really teach kids is to engage them on their
own terms, which means that one must form genuine personal
bonds with
each student. This doesn’t mean you have to have the class
over for dinner (though it doesn’t hurt if you do), but that
you need to get down on one knee to look your 7-year old in the face
and gently explain the technique – rather than simply admonishing
coldly from a distance. Personalized attention is irreplaceable.

A community of the class - creating common identity
While kids will naturally become progressively more comfortable
with the rest of the class as time goes by, they will not
form a genuine
community without some guidance and instigation from their
teacher. Special events like dojo sleep-overs, picnics, etc.
help the
kids start feeling like they belong to the aikido class in
something like
the same way they belong to their school, family, church
group, or camp.

The student’s sense of group identity can also be encouraged
by games and competitions in class that pit them against you, characterized
by as much enthusiasm as you and they can handle.

A community of practitioners - casting a wider training
net
Moving outward from their own class, we can create opportunities
for kids to realize they belong to the larger training
community. Adults enjoy the chance to train at seminars,
or just at
another dojo while traveling. We can, and should, create
chances for
kids to train outside the boundaries of their normal
classes in a similar
way. A few ideas regarding how:

Talk to your neighbors – Find out, if you don’t already
know, who’s teaching kid’s classes nearby, and give them
a call. Offer to co-teach a class every so often, taking turns having
your kids to travel to their dojo, and having their kids travel to
yours. Setting this up once a quarter won’t be too disruptive,
but certainly has the power to help your students realize that
they are part of a larger Aikido world.

Engage your kids in the larger written Aikido community – Get
your students reading some of the many good Aikido books that are
available, send them to AikidoJournal.com, AikidoKids.com, AikiWeb.com,
and other online communities that foster ongoing conversations
between practitioners.

Help students train while traveling – Whether your kids are
only gone for a spring break vacation, or a summer at camp – encourage
them to take their gi with them and use the various online dojo-finders.
Even a single training session with a different sensei and a new
group of students is likely to open their eyes to some of the impressive
variation available.

Offer a kid’s seminar – Find a free day or a weekend,
enlist neighboring sensei to get the word out (and quite possibly
to share the teaching load), put together a curriculum that will
fill the time productively, toss in a fun group activity or two in
addition to the aikido classes, and charge what you need to charge
so you don’t actually lose money on the deal (or at least
not much).

A community of people - aikido is for everybody's
sake
O’Sensei clearly had a vision which portrayed Aikido as a “means
to heal the world”. Aikido, in other words – is not just
for those of us who practice it – but in fact helps everyone
that all of us ever interact with. I’m not sure how much
philosophy one wants to impose on younger kids, but it seems important
for everyone
to know, eventually, that the larger purpose of our training is
to make us better people, and thus to help us inhabit a better
world.

Robert
Kent, San Dan, runs the youth program at Aikido West in Redwood
City, CA (under Frank Doran Shihan, 7th Dan) and is the founder
of AikidoKids.com, the web's first online community for everyone
who teaches Aikido to kids, and for the kids they teach. The
site features game ideas, equipment and curriculum recommendations,
instructor profiles, and a community forum.